Showing posts with label Steve Biko. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Biko. Show all posts

Monday, May 22, 2017

Knowing the Truth, Seeing the Truth but still Believing the Lies



White consciousness should have the following aims:
·        To crystallise the needs and aspirations of the whites and to make known their grievances.
·        Where possible to put into effect programs designed to meet the needs of whites and to act on a collective basis in an effort to solve some of the problems which beset them.
·        To heighten the degree of contact not only amongst the white but also amongst these and the rest of the South African population to make the whites accepted on their own terms as an integral part of the South African community.
·        To establish a solid identity amongst whites and to ensure that they are always treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
·        To boost up the morale of the whites to heighten their own confidence in themselves and to contribute largely to the direction of thought taken by various institutions on social, political and other current topics.
While these aims might appear to be couched in radicalistic language, they are in fact a sign that the white community has at last lost faith with their black counterparts and is now withdrawing from the open society.   The whites are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing.  They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves.
A time has come when whites have to formulate their own thinking, unpolluted by ideas emanating from a group with lots at stake in the status quo.  It is difficult not to look at black society as a group of people bent on perpetuating that status quo.  All suffer from the same fault basically of accepting as a fact that there shall be black leadership and even worse, that they shall occupy themselves predominantly with problems affecting black society first.   We need to adopt the principle that whites should work themselves into a powerful group so as to go forth and stake their rightful claim in the open society rather than to exercise that power in some obscure part of the Kalahari.
It is a painful waste of time to engage in any dialogue with racially-bigoted organisations.  Hence, this belies the belief that our withdrawal is an end in itself. 
(Written by Steve Biko in 1970.  I only inserted the word “white’ where he had written ‘black’. But so apt for where we find ourselves today – a group with no identity) 

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

White Man, You're on Your Own - The Logic of Genocide

Enough hatred 
 I am a human rights activist and I speak for those who cannot speak for themselves – for whatever reason; be it that they are children, abused adults or a society that is too afraid to speak the truth.   I see people for who they are, for what is inside their hearts rather than any other distinguishing features.  I have zero tolerance for racism.   For a while, I have had an uneasy feeling about how white people live, and are forced to live by government decree; and their acceptance of being labelled unwelcome in the land of their birth.  For the most part, they accept the notion of being inferior and lamely accept all the blame for the wrongs in South Africa today. 
Standing up for this group of people does not make me a racist.  Steve Biko was not a racist and yet he found it necessary to look at the race he belonged to and found a way to move people in a conscious way.  This was his Black Consciousness Movement (BCM).   He believed that as long as people accepted the status quo (apartheid), there would be no change.  He demanded that Black people become more conscious of their inferior complex and to stand up and be counted, not as being superior to anyone else, but to be aware of their innate personality – something to be proud of.   He said, “…the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. 
After 22 years of living under ANC rule, White people have lost their personality.  Just as the apartheid system had rules in place to separate and discriminate against people of a different colour – so too today, we have laws that are race-based to oppress the minority group of Whites.
It has been a slow but insidious onslaught to degrade and discriminate against Whites and the sin here is that White people have not stood up to be counted, but have allowed this slow process of discrimination to take place.   They have accepted that the country is no longer theirs, that if they want to live here they must accept what they are given, many feel an urge to ask forgiveness for the apartheid regime even though they never voted for the National Party and many were not even born during that time.  Many too were not even of voting age.  I am angered and disgusted at people who ask for forgiveness for something they did not do, but with cap in hand apologise for the colour of their skin.   I don’t see many people who promote non-racism but at the same time stand up for the minority group that they are unwittingly and by birth assigned to.  
The racism in this country is driven by the government.  In this democratic society, with its equality for all, except in certain circumstances, makes the White minority group less equal to the majority. 
The state sponsored racial hate and the number of laws that alienate the minority in the Zuma administration is one part of the events required for genocide to take place.  This is a well-ordered political indoctrination, making white people inferior to black people in respect to education and sport (quota system); economical and political (AA and BEE).  Part of this indoctrination is to continually point out that the things that go wrong in this country now, is the fault of the White man then.  The number of years the ANC has controlled the government is dismissed and taken out of the history books. 
Very few people know that in 1992, a referendum, limited to white South African voters, asked the question if they supported a vote for all people, irrespective of race, to have the vote and to do away with apartheid.  The overwhelming majority voted YES to the reforms that FW de Klerk had started.  That victory of YES ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted.  This part is also written out of the history books because it does not suit the necessary conditions for genocide. 
The very fact that our government promotes Black people and makes the ‘other’ separate is another necessary political move necessary for community building to secure a totalitarian order through genocide.
Philip Gourevitch in the book, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families gives a sobering perspective on genocide.   “Genocide, after all, is an exercise in community building.  A vigorous totalitarian order requires that the people be invested in the leaders’ scheme, and while genocide may be the most perverse and ambitious means to this end, it is also the most comprehensive.  In 1994, Rwanda was regarded in much of the rest of the world as the exemplary instance of the chaos and anarchy associated with collapsed states.  In fact, the genocide was the product of order, authoritarianism, decades of modern political theorizing and indoctrination, and one of the most meticulously administered states in history.  And strange as it may sound, the ideology – or what Rwandans call “the logic”- of genocide was promoted as a way not to create suffering but to alleviate it.  The spectre of an absolute menace that requires absolute eradication binds leader and people in a hermitic utopian embrace, and the individual – always an annoyance to totality – ceases to exist”.   This is the most well-written paragraph on the reasons for genocide. 
Can any one of us honestly say that we do not see the stage at which we are on the scale of the promotion of genocide as a way not to create suffering to the majority, but to alleviate it?  Unless Zuma and his cronies stop fucking around by promoting Blacks and making unfair laws against Whites, our path is destined to end in genocide.  
White people – arise and wake up to becoming conscious of the beauty, the strength, the uniqueness of who you are; wake up and become aware of yourself and your group.  It is now time that I say what is in my heart.   White man...let us pick ourselves up and free ourselves  from our minority and inferior status in South Africa.
Steve Biko said “If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one's mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his powerful masters”.  He also said, “Black man, you are on your own”.  I say “White man, you are on your own”.  There has never been a better time for a White Consciousness Movement. 

Friday, January 8, 2016

"White Consciousness"

South African Squatter camps for whites 
…the type of white man we have today has lost his manhood.  Reduced to an obliging shell, he looks with awe at the black power structure and accepts what he regards as the ‘inevitable position’.  Deep inside his anger mounts at the accumulating insult, but he vents it in the wrong direction… No longer does he trust leadership …nor is there any trust.  In the privacy of his toilet his face twists in silent condemnation of black society but brightens up in sheepish obedience as he comes out hurrying in response to his master’s impatient call.  Around his braai, he joins the chorus that roundly condemns the black man but is first to praise the government in the presence of the police or his employers.  His heart yearns for the comfort of black society and makes him blame himself for not having been educated enough to warrant such luxury.  All in all the white man has become a shell, a shadow of man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity.
This is the first truth, bitter as it may seem, that we have to acknowledge before we can start on any programme designed to change the status quo.  It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.  The first step therefore is to make the white man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.  This is what we mean by an inward-looking process.  This is the definition of ‘White Consciousness’.

(All I have done is change the words black and white around – this was written by Steve Biko and it is 100% true of the majority of our white citizens today) 

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Eugene de Kock's parole - and the FB fallout!



 The fall out from the parole of Eugene de Kock has astounded me.  While thousands of people have rejoiced, there are those who have resorted to vile and hateful speech and threats.  As most of you know, I have championed the cause to see Eugene de Kock freed via social media only because it is the only thing that I can physically do.    I am overjoyed by his release.  However, the fight is far from over.  Parole is half free.  As Mandela himself said, there is no such thing as half-free.  You are either free or you are not.  And that is why he was given an unconditional release.   Since we do not yet know of the conditions of the parole, we must carry the torch to get a Presidential Pardon for Eugene.   Hopefully, he has been unconditionally released, in which case, our job is truly done.  If not, we will continue to lobby for a pardon for him.  

 While I am happy to answer inbox messages to the hundreds of people who inbox me about important things, I will NOT respond to inbox messages that contain nasty, untrue bullshit.  Why don't you call the President with your problems?  Don't make me the scapegoat for all your hateful racism or attempt to make me apologise for being white.  

 These white people that walk around being ashamed of being white, hanging their heads in shame about things that they had no power over, things that were done by their grandparents (well those in government), or asking forgiveness for their ancestors coming to this land, apologising profusely for apartheid as though they brought it into being (for those who do not know - apartheid was just an adaptation of the British colour bar laws) and who believe that they are inferior and that they must beg to live in the country of their birth ... go read Steve Biko's philosophy and put yourself into those shoes.  You will see that you are doing no one any favours by your pathetic, apologetic stance.  There is no greater weapon in an oppressors hand than the mind of an oppressed people.  You white apologetists (don't even know if that is a word) are oppressed in your own minds.  It is time that you caught a wake up, and started walking with your head held high.   Start taking responsibility for shaping and making our country work for all of us.   No one is going to respect you while you hang your head in shame. 

 You are not white, you are not black, YOU ARE A SOUTH AFRICAN.   Behave like one please.   We are one family.  We are one another's keeper.